When Lya awoke she resolved to leave London as soon as possible. The dream of the previous night convinced her that someone had used occult powers to send her a powerful, sanity-draining dream. She thought that this tactic might have been used against Jackson Elias when he was in London and that "water might protect" (quoting from his notes). She thought that such a mental attack required possession of an item from the victim and she began sorting through her belongings to see if anything was missing.
Lya then took a taxi to the Russell Hotel, where she met Niles having breakfast (alone). She told him that she was leaving and went upstairs to pack up her and Nell's belongings. When she checked out of the hotel she was handed a telephone message asking her to contact Brother Paul Bruno O'Leary at St. Clement's Seminary in Chelsea. Lya had sent a telegram to her friend Brother Paul back in January when she was assembling a group of investigators to meet Jackson Elias in New York. At the time he was unable to join her due to a previous commitment but had promised to help when able. She had kept him informed of their progress during the subsequent weeks and she was pleased that he had finally arrived in Britain.
Lya telephoned Brother Paul at the seminary and arranged to meet him there. She and Niles then took a taxi to the seminary. After explaining their business at the gate, they were conducted to the visitor's room, where they met Brother Paul.
After making introductions, Lya recounted the events of the previous weeks to Brother Paul, holding back nothing and becoming more agitated and fearful as the story unfolded. Brother Paul immediately noticed the change in Lya's demeanor and state of mind since New York and tried to calm her by asking her to try and understand the psychological roots of her recent panic attacks. He suggested that there might be a reasonable explanation for the disappearances of Quentin and Scott and agreed to accompany them to Brown's Hotel and assist in the investigation.
The trio then took a taxi to Brown's Hotel where they met Alisa. After hearing Alisa's story, Brother Paul expressed his concern over her legal troubles and counseled her to avoid firearms in the future. At that point Nell telephoned from Dover and let everyone know that Dan'l was in good condition. Lya explained to Nell about the dream and that she must leave Britain immediately. After some discussion it was agreed that Nell would accompany Lya to Paris that night, with Niles remaining at Dover to watch over Dan'l. Alisa voiced her frustration at having to remain in London until the plea-bargain was arranged.
After that conversation ended, Alisa ordered lunch from room service. During lunch, Inspector Barrington phoned. He had tried to reach Lya at the Russell Hotel but had been informed that she was now at Brown's. Lya told Barrington everything she had learned from Ayesha and that she was about to leave Britain. Barrington thought that it would be prudent to do so. He said that the assassin in Dover was in a coma and had not yet been questioned but that he might have had accomplices. He suggested hiring private investigators to continue the investigation, since he was hindered in what he could do in his official capacity. Alisa agreed to foot the bill but asked if Barrington could expedite the plea-bargain. Barrington promised to do what he could to move things along and gave her the telephone number of a reputable firm, Independent Investigations.
Alisa called the number and spoke with a man named Velu , who promised to meet her in the lobby of the hotel in an hour, along with his partner Jessica Wright . Meanwhile, Lya continued to inventory her possessions but could find nothing missing. Niles began reading his Paris Baedeker and suggested the Ritz Hotel as a suitable base of operations.
An hour later the group went down to the lobby where they met Velu and Jessica Wright from Independent Investigations. Velu suggested that they go to a nearby fish&chips restaurant down the street to discuss the case. Alisa gave them a brief overview of the Egyptian murders/Blue Pyramid/Carlyle Expedition/Penhew Foundation leads that they had been following but omitted any mention of the events related to Quentin's disappearance and her arrest. Alisa explained that she would be leaving Britain soon and that they should send her frequent reports. Velu and Jessica agreed to take the case. Lya suggested they examine the Scoop archives and promised to call Mickey Mahoney before she left London.
Late that afternoon, Lya, Niles, and Brother Paul took the train to Dover, with Alisa bidding them farewell from the platform. Once in Dover, they visited Dan'l at the hospital and were pleased to see that he was doing well. Niles took a room at the Lord Warden Hotel while Nell checked out. That night, Lya and Nell took the ferry to Calais, while Brother Paul returned to London and St. Clement's seminary.
Back in London, Alisa decided to try and relax. She and Rupert went out to dinner at Verrey's, followed by an exceptional performance of Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera at Covent Garden (conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham).
Velu put on laborer's clothes and scouted out the East End docks . The Crescent Empire warehouse was located by the Thames in a congested area of narrow streets and crumbling, soot-blackened brick buildings. Nearby was a pub (the Red Dragon) and a gambling hall (The Black Lotus). Most of the people in the streets seemed to be immigrant laborers.
Velu found the office at the Crescent Empire warehouse and asked the manager (an Indian man named Chabout) if workers were needed. He was told to come back at 10 PM that night if he wanted work.
Velu returned that night and was promptly put to work along with 11 other Indian and Chinese men loading crates into a 7,000 ton merchantman called The Ivory Wind. It seemed scarcely seaworthy and its captain appeared quite intoxicated. He and his crew of five conversed among themselves in a European language Velu did not recognize.
Velu noticed one of the crates was from the Rolls Royce factory in Coventry
and was being sent to: Ho Fong Imports, 15 Kaoyang Road, Shanghai, China,
with markings in Chinese characters as well. Another crate was marked
with the same address and the additional instructions: Personal Attention
of Honorable Ho Fong. After about an hour of work the laborers were
paid and dismissed. Velu took the Underground home.
Rupert spent most of the day working on his book about Count Kurasov. Brother Paul attended Mass and spent the day in meditation and prayer. He also wrote a letter to his superior in Los Angeles. Niles took a walking tour of Dover and visited the Castle. Alisa attended a matinee performance of Hamlet at the Old Vic. Dinner that evening was at Brown's Hotel.
Jessica Wright called the Scoop offices but found that they were
closed, so she went to the British Museum library and read back issues
of various publications that had covered the Egyptian murders.
Brother Paul met Alissa at the Penhew Foundation when it opened and spent the morning examining the museum. After lunch at a nearby cafe they visited the British Museum. While examining the display of historical documents and rare books in the library they met Rupert, who told them that the translator had finished working on the Summon Aerial Servant incantation responsible for Scott Theobald's disappearance. He showed the book to Brother Paul, who could not read the medieval Latin. He counseled Rupert to beware of invoking occult powers - let Scott's fate be a reminder. Rupert told them that he was going to Derbyshire the next day.
Rupert sent a telegram to his office in New York, instructing them to sell all of his Florida real estate holdings, as he was considering buying property in England.
Jessica and Velu met at their office on Wormwood Street (near Liverpool Street station) to discuss the case, then went their separate ways.
Velu consulted the maritime records and found that The Ivory Wind was of Chinese registry, home port Shanghai. It had recently arrived from Gibraltar. Its next ports of call were Marseilles, Malta, Port Said, Aden, Bombay, Singapore, Saigon, and Shanghai. Velu also learned that Crescent Empire Imports was incorporated in 1920 and currently owned by Mr. Chabout.
That afternoon Velu stopped by the Penhew Foundation and applied for a job as a security guard but was told that there was no vacancy. He asked the current guard on duty if he had known Allan Groot and was told that Groot had quit one day and gone back to Glasgow. Velu then walked through the Seven Dials district. He found it to be seedy but unremarkable.
Back at his office, Velu called the Glasgow telephone exchange and asked to speak with Alan Groot. He was informed that no such listing existed. He than asked to speak with any "Groot" and was connected to Laura Groot, who turned out to be Alan's sister. She informed Velu that Alan Groot was currently at Brown's resident Clinic for the Insane in Glasgow and had been there since returning from London. She referred him to Alan's doctor, Ian McAllistair.
Velu telephoned Dr. McAllistair and made arrangements to talk with Alan Groot on Wednesday.
Jessica continued her research and discovered that Edward Gavigan (director of the Penhew Foundation) lives at #17 Grosvenor Square in the upper-class district of Mayfair, in a flat owned by the foundation. She also found that Gavigan is held in high regard by the academic community for his work in sponsoring Egyptian research and has received awards from the Royal Egyptian Society and Durham University. He is also a member of the exclusive Oriental Club, in Hanover Square.
Jessica then visited a temp agency that she had worked with before and enquired about any positions (as nanny or cleaning lady) in the Grosvenor Square area. She was told that a short-term vacancy existed for a cleaning lady at the nearby Bulwer-Lytton Museum (at #12 Grosvenor Square, in a house once occupied by the esteemed author). Jessica accepted the job and was told to report tomorrow at 4 PM.
Back at Brown's Hotel, Alisa received a telegram from Nell and Lya that they had arrived safely in Paris and were staying at the Hotel Rivoli. On her way to dinner she noticed a new edition of The Scoop for sale, with "Horror at the Ju-Ju House" as its lead story. Purchasing a copy and quickly scanning through the "exclusive by Lya Brighter", she was relieved to find that she was not mentioned at all in the story.
Velu, Jessica, Alisa, Rupert, and Brother Paul met for dinner at The Bombay Palace restaurant in Soho (owned by Velu's cousin) to discuss the day's events.
Later that night Velu staked out the Penhew Foundation. He saw
a few lights on inside. Around midnight the cleaning lady left.
Velu then returned home.
Brother Paul returned to the Penhew Foundation, where he spent the day in the museum library unsuccessfully looking for any references to "Brotherhood of the Black Pharaoh" or "Bloody Tongue Cult".
Alisa called her lawyer, who informed her that Sir David had successfully arranged for her plea-bargain. The agreement would be ready for her to sign on Wednesday morning. Alisa spent the rest of the day packing and wrapping up her business dealings. She also sent telegrams to the Paris branch of Barings and to Peabody-Kidder in Boston. She also informed Jessica that she would be leaving London and to send her regular reports at the Ritz Hotel in Paris.
Jessica and Velu searched the archives of the Times of London for any information about the Penhew Foundation. They discovered a reference to a court proceeding in 1920 which declared Sir Aubrey Penhew legally dead. At the Old Bailey they found a transcript of the hearing and discovered that one of the witnesses who had testified was Tewfik al-Sayed, who had served as guide and interpreter for the Carlyle Expedition! After the African woman had disappeared with the expedition funds, Tewfik had returned to England while the others went on to Kenya. Further research revealed that Tewfik had opened a spice shop (Eastern Spices) in 1920 and the Blue Pyramid in 1922. They also learned that all of Sir Aubrey's property, including several estates and a house in Paris, was left to the Foundation.
Velu then visited the spice shop on Wardour Street in Soho. The shop seemed quite ordinary, with Mr. al-Sayed working behind the counter. Velu ordered some Indian spices for his wife and noted that Mr. al-Sayed spoke excellent English. Velu asked him if he had spices such as "powdered mummy", which he had heard would increase vigor and potency. Tewfik told him that that was only a folk tale and that it would be an act of great disrespect to the former god-kings of Egypt to grind them up into powder. After leaving the shop, Velu waited until he saw Tewfik close up at 5 PM and walk several blocks to the Blue Pyramid.
Jessica reported for work at the Bulwer-Lytton museum on time and was shown her duties. After cleaning for several hours, she left the museum and walked around Grosvenor Square, noting that its inhabitants were quite wealthy. She sat for awhile in front of Mr. Gavigan's building until a policeman told her to move along.
That evening, Velu returned to the docks and again found work. This time he unloaded a small merchantman called the St. Martin. The crates were marked "Randolph Shipping Company, Port Darwin, Australia".
Meanwhile, Rupert took a taxi to St. Pancras' Station and took the morning train to Derby, changing trains at Leicester. He arrived at Derby around noon and, after lunch, took the motor omnibus to the village of Lesser Edale. The scenery along the way was quite beautiful, as the road followed the banks of the Derwent River through a landscape of limestone cliffs, wooded vales, and waterfalls.
Rupert arrived in Lesser Edale at 3:30 PM. Noting that the omnibus returned to Derby at 6:35 AM, 9:20 AM, and 4 PM, he decided to spend the night. The village consisted of about thirty homes (several with thatched roofs), the Laughing Horse pub, the Pitchlock Modern mercantile store, and a small modern Anglican church next to the foundations of a much older building. A castle was visible on a hill about a mile away. It had begun a cold, steady rain.
Rupert decided to visit the Laughing Horse pub. There he found about ten men enjoying the local beer, Bagman's Bitter. One of them was Constable Hubert Tumwell, a stout, cheerful-looking fellow with a handle-bar moustache.
Rupert introduced himself to the constable as a journalist interested in hearing about the recent murders. The constable seemed pleased to tell the story again, and launched into a description of what had happened. He stated that he believed the murders to have been committed by a wild dog, which he mortally wounded with his shotgun. "Gone off to die in the hills. We ha'nt been troubled since, thank God."
One of the villagers spoke up, saying that the constable had not been so sure when the detective from Scotland Yard had been out here last fall. Rupert took the opportunity to buy a round of beers for everyone, which brought out more information. Another villager said that he had caught a glimpse of the creature - "No dog be a-walkin' round on his back paws, Hubert. And no dog e'er ripped bone fra bone in such a way as done to poor Lydia". The constable seemed confused and said nothing.
Rupert asked about accommodations in the village and was told that there were rooms available upstairs. After reserving a room he looked around the pub. On a message board he noticed that the "Derwent Order of the Golden Druid" was having its quarterly meeting on March 1, at the Laughing Horse pub. The corresponding secretary was the Right Reverend Jeremy Stratton, whom he was told was the local vicar.
Rupert also enquired about the possibility of purchasing land in the village. He was told that most of the land belonged to the local squire, Sir Arthur Vane, who owned the castle and was something of a recluse.
Since the rain had not let up, Rupert retired to his room early. Sometime after midnight he was awakened by the howls of a creature. Looking out the window, he saw that it had stopped raining. Rupert decided not to go investigating and instead went back to sleep.
Velu took the early morning train to Glasgow, departing Euston Station station at 6 AM on the Caledonian Express via Carlisle and arriving in Glasgow at 3:30 PM. After hailing a taxi, he discovered that the Glaswegian dialect is not quite the same as the King's English he learned in Bombay. After an inadvertent detour through Clydeside, he eventually arrived at Brown's Resident Clinic for the Insane and, escorted by Dr. MacAllistair, interviewed Alan Groot.
The interview began well. Groot remembered working at the Penhew Foundation as a security guard "before the war - 1919-22". He remembered nothing about his encounter in the fog written up in Scoop, but did recall one evening at the Foundation when a delivery was made. A crate accidentally spilled open and he saw something...
At that point Groot lapsed into a catatonic state and refused to answer any more questions.
After dinner at the Caledonian Central Station hotel restaurant, Velu returned to London on the overnight train.
Jessica, meanwhile, continued working as a cleaning lady at the Bulwer-Lytton museum. Since there was only one visitor today, her duties were light and she finished early. She walked about Mayfair for over an hour, until she saw Edward Gavigan walking home.
Alisa took a taxi to the law offices of Llewellyn and Descoynes, where she eagerly signed the plea-bargain agreement and paid her fine and legal fees in cash. She told them that she would leave England that evening. Returning to Brown's Hotel, she telephoned Niles in Dover, then told the concierge to reserve her a suite at the Paris Ritz and to send her baggage ahead. She and Brother Paul then departed London on the noon train.
Arriving in Dover, she met Niles and went to see Dan'l at the hospital. Dan'l said that he would be released in the morning. Alisa and Brother Paul then took the afternoon ferry to Calais.
Rupert began the day in Lesser Edale. After hearty English breakfast
at the pub, he strolled about the village. He found the vicar's house
and knocked on the door but there was no answer. He walked over to
the church and found that it was closed. Next to the church were
the ruins of a much older structure. He then returned to the pub
and took the 9:20 AM motor omnibus back to Derby and then the train back
to London. At the desk of Brown's Hotel he found a message from Alisa
informing him that she had left Britain and could be reached at the Ritz
Hotel in Paris.